Sunday, October 21, 2012

Travellng to Orlando

Today was a travel day. I'm in Orlando for the week for a work related conference. I was glad to go as our training budget is slim so any chance to get out of the office is great. Plus, who doesn't like to be in Florida in October? It's in the 50's back home and sunny and 85 here. Not that I'll get a chance to enjoy it as I'll be in the hotel all week. But I digress.

Traveling today has been a real adventure. As a point of reference, I've only flown one other time since 9/11 and that was a few years ago. So you can say I'm not a seasoned air traveller, though I am a pretty seasoned traveller. The day started with the security check. I sent all of my things through the x-ray machine as I was supposed to. I was debating whether or not to take the small bag with my toiletries out of my suitcase or not and decided best to do so as I had a small bottle of shampoo in it and you know what the signs say...

So, as I'm waiting to go through the full body scan, the security person by the x-rays asks who the bag belongs to. I state it's mine. When I get to the other side, I'm asked if it's ok to go through it. No problem. Except that I'd packed my regular tube of toothepaste instead of a travel size one. And a regular tube of toothepaste is about 6 ounces, which is more than the maximum allowed of 3 ounces. So I had to leave it behind. Because, you know, it might be dangerous if I spoke to people with fresh breath. (I know, I know, I could really have been a terrorst with a serious amount of baking soda flavored explosives in the tube).

My flight had a stopover at JFK. The filght out was uneventful. Other than the joy I felt in realizing the little TV's in the headrests had free Direct TV and Sirius XM radio! It was too early for sports so I listened to some classic rock on the flight while reading from my Nook. Great way to spend an hour on a flight! The time flew by! I had about 35 minutes in JFK before my next flight started boarding so I managed to grab a quick lunch (Holy cow, $9 for a small sandwich! Airports are highway robbery!). Would have loved to hang out with some of my NYC blog and Facebook pals, but no such luck.

Next leg was a 3 hour flight from JFK to Orlando. I figured it would be great as the Giants game was on and it would be ending about the time we arrived in Orlando. Cake flight, right? Except the woman next to me started getting motion sick as soon as we started down the runway to take off. She was heaving in the little airsickness bag before we even leveled out. And she was sick the entire flight. To be fair, I really felt bad for her. She spent the entire flight with her head against the seat in front of her. It wasn't that much of a big deal as it sounded mostly like dry heaves but still. I focused on the game and the flight wasn't that bad at all.

Arrived in Orlando and got a cab to the hotel. Ended up with a British driver! We chatted about football (the REAL European version we affectionately call soccer). Great guy! He gave me his card to call and pick me up when I leave. Which I may very well do. I'm staying at the hotel where the conference is being held. It's the Peabody Orlando Hotel. VERY swanky place. You'll notice my Facebook picture of the bathroom mirror. It's got a TV built in! And the whole place is really classy. I ate in one of the hotel resteraunts and had one of the best steaks ever! A black angus prime rib aged 21 days. Melt in your mouth! The only thing that would have made dinner perfect was if I could have shared it with my lovely wife. The only thing I never liked about business travel is that I'm usually travelling on my own. Makes it a little lonely when things aren't going on.

Now I'm just kicking back until everything kicks off tomorrow morning! They have a great fitness center at the hotel so I'll probably get up early and get a workout before breakfast. I'll need it as the food here is outstanding and probably not helpful to keeping a reasonable weight!